WhatsApp now has 1 billion users

WhatsApp now has 1 billion users. The communications platform has seen a meteoric rise in its userbase over the last year, adding 500 million new users. More recently, WhatsApp announced that it would be eliminating the annual subscription fee entirely, relying on connecting businesses with customers for monetization.

From Mark Zuckerberg:

“WhatsApp’s community has more than doubled since joining Facebook. We’ve added the ability for you to call loved ones far away. We’ve dropped the subscription fee and made WhatsApp completely free. Next, we’re going to work to connect more people around the world and make it easier to communicate with businesses.There are only a few services that connect more than a billion people. This milestone is an important step towards connecting the entire world.”